For the non science readers of this page, please start here. The work I present on the page is as follows; pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are a form of cancer that causes vast issues throughout the body. The reason for this is due to the natural processes in the body that it interrupts. The pancreas plays a crucial role in the regulation of certain body functions, specifically the endocrine system. The endocrine system is best described as a system in the body that helps regulate natural processes. Think of the human body as a complex computer and the endocrine system is the background code that helps the rest of the computer carry out functions that we see it do. Breaking down food? The endocrine system helps start that process. Controlling your mood? The endocrine system builds molecules to help make that happen. Every growth sprout you’ve ever had? You can bet the farm that the endocrine system is helping regulate that as well. It’s also important to understand that the endocrine system is not just the pancreas. The pancreas is just one part of this important system. This project just happens to focus on that specific part.
Now, what exactly is cancer? Cancer is a type of tumor made up of uncontrolled cells. They basically mutated in a way that causes them to multiply at an insane rate and cause issues throughout the body by either just existing in the way of normal functions or hijacking the normal functions of the cell they mutated from. The mutations occur randomly, either from outside sources penetrating and affecting your DNA or just through random mutations that occur naturally. Fun fact! Mutations are occurring all the time throughout the body. You can’t stop them, it just takes such little energy to drive the reaction that they’re always happening, but you have so much DNA that doesn’t actually do anything, so these mutations have no effect on the body. That was free learning. Cancers occur when a mutation occurs at a point of DNA that actually codes for proteins. That’s why it was so important when MEN1 was found as a main cause for pancreatic cancer; it brings us closer to stopping these mutations from getting out of hand and stopping the cancer.
The reason why cancer continues to grow is because its mutations allow cells to basically become immortal or bypass the checkpoints that control cell division. Cells have code in their DNA that allows them to die; this is referred to as apoptosis. This helps to stop damaged cells from becoming a problem and malfunction. When a cell “breaks” apoptosis begins and a new cell takes its place. These breaks occur naturally and cannot be stopped. However, there can be mutations in the apoptosis pathways that cause apoptosis to malfunction and not occur, allowing the broken cell to live forever, continue dividing and cause problems in the cell. Cell division is also a source of cancer; in cells, there exist “checkpoint proteins” that act as toll booths allowing the cell to either continue growth, divide into two new cells, or die. When these checkpoints get bypassed by mutations, the cells divide rapidly and form a tumor.
The main way of fighting cancer is through chemotherapy, which is touched on during my last section. Chemotherapy is a broad term that refers to pretty much any chemical drug used to help treat cancer. A lot of these drugs have some pretty harmful side effects because drugs that are taken in by the body don’t just attack the target area, they spread throughout the body. Of course, there are synthetic techniques to help push a drug to prefer a certain target over the other. For example, streptozotocin is the main therapeutic that is used to help treat mild cases of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Streptozotocin was synthesized in a way where it has a similar shape to glucose. A vast majority of receptors on pancreatic cells have an affinity to glucose because of the role it plays in glucose regulation. In case you didn’t know, receptors are proteins that accept molecules and bring them into the cell. So, by making a drug that has a similar shape to favored receptors on a cell, the drug can primarily be taken up by the targeted area with significantly less side effects to the patient. This is a major reason I chose to focus so heavily on streptozotocin as a therapeutic! Anyways, after reading this quick summary/explanation please feel free to explore the rest of the website and start at the history section!
I tried to define any unfamiliar terms in the bodies of the section; if any terms stand out as needing to be defined please leave a comment and I’ll get to it right away!
